About the Author

Ronnie Davis —
Managing Director, Customer Strategy

Ronnie was named managing director of customer strategy in October 2009, having served as a director of outsource solutions since January 2008. Ronnie has been with the company since 1998, and holds a Bachelor of Science from Texas Tech University. Previous positions with C.H. Robinson include strategic account manager, and general manager of Dallas national accounts. Ronnie is a member of Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA.)

Myth-Busting Logistics Outsourcing

What is Logistics Outsourcing?

Logistics outsourcing is using an external supplier (3PL or 4PL) for logistics services a company cannot provide sufficiently themselves. Companies choose to outsource to save money long term, to achieve greater customer service, to achieve flexibility and scalability, to utilize advanced logistics technology, and to gain industry relationships.

Choosing to outsource logistics should be a strategic, carefully-made decision. Here, we have laid out five common logistics outsourcing myths and debunked them to give you a clear picture of what it is really like.

When many customers are considering a network modeling exercise to save money, they often ask this question first: “Where should my warehouses be, and how many do I need?” Like so many other things in life that are worth doing, it’s not as simple as that. Because if you don’t follow a process that analyzes the tradeoffs, you could end up increasing your costs instead of decreasing them. » Read More

When should you do a network modeling exercise? If you’ve only optimized your outbound network, you’ve hit the first trigger, since network modeling is crucial for inbound efficiency, too. Beyond this, you can watch for these signals that your network’s time has come. » Read More